Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Warsaw, Poland - Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, presents the results of a national research on the use of electronic students ID cards in Polish high schools and universities. The students from five major Polish academic centers (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warszawa and Wroclaw) have favorably assessed the implementation of the new students’ identification system and have pointed out the functions and areas where they would find such ID cards useful in the future.

Large-scale deployment of student cards started end 2007 and to date, 115 universities and high schools are issuing the e-student card. Another 300 universities are expected to join in the program in the near future. 1.1 million users take advantage of the electronic card every day. The card ensures strong secure authentication for identity credentials and provides physical access to the campus facilities, like canteens, dormitories, workshops, labs or even public transport. It can also be used as a digital wallet. Electronic Student Cards deployed in Poland are sophisticated security devices with multifold protection elements including electronic elements (contact and contactless) and visual effects (i.e. microprints) which make them much more difficult to forge than paper ID’s.

Electronic Student Card = Convenience and Functionality

The results show that students have grown fond of student e-IDs, with 80% of them satisfied with Electronic Student Cards. According to students this is a comfortable, functional and visually attractive way to identify individuals. The biggest advantage of Electronic Student Card is its convenience and its small size (almost 50% of spontaneous indications).
The electronic card is perfectly suited to the life style of young people on-the-go, smoothly reacting to new technologies and to the Internet environment. They expect solutions that would make their life in a university environment both more convenient and secure. If students could decide on the selection of the students’ ID type, 86% would choose Electronic Student Card.

“Implementing the Electronic Student Cards system in Polish universities has been the biggest project of this type in Europe. This strongly positive reaction to the student electronic ID card is very rewarding and clearly shows the way for development of student-friendly solutions and the expectations in the near future. An additional functionality could be exchange of information between students from foreign universities.” – commented Michał Strzelecki, representative of ECCA (European Campus Card Association).

Electronic Student Card = a wide variety of choice

The electronic form of ID enables to select and add extra applications. At present, Electronic Student Cards users most frequently choose the following functions: dorms, libraries, swimming pool entry (70%), and public transport tickets (43%).

One third of users would be interested to have a wider menu to choose from on their ID card. Among spontaneously named functions, students mention: pay cards, credit cards, students credit book, discount card in shops and cafes. Among extra options, students most often mention – access to exams’ results, lectures schedule, cinema/theater tickets, plane tickets and entries to all kinds of cultural events.

Students would welcome enthusiastically not only the “within university facilities” but also a menu of public institutions facilities. 77% of students would be interested in safe data exchange with public institutions, using Electronic Student Cards. In particular, 96% of students in economy would be interested in such an offer.

Microprocessor cards are a simple and convenient solution for students, and it provides many benefits to universities as well. This trend is confirmed by students and universities executives in many countries in the world. Gemalto has already shipped over six million electronic student cards for universities in Latin America, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2008 annual revenues of €1.68 billion, and 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 40 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere—has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection. To complete the solution we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.